Touch and feel the virtual world

Technology enhances sexual pleasureVR technology has made huge leaps over the past few years, but one thing that's lacking is an interface that lets you feel in the virtual world. Now, a startup from the University of Tokyo says it has come up with one of the world's first video game controller that let you touch in VR. It's called `UnlimitedHand', and it's a haptic sensor that you st rap a rou nd you r forearm, letting you touch, feel, pet, hold, punch, push, pull and manipulate items, characters and other stuff in a VR world. It's a project from a startup called H2L that originally formed at the University of Tokyo -the Japanese equivalent of Harvard. Now, the group's raising money on Kickstarter to bring the hand to market.

How does the Ace bandagelike apparatus let you feel the weight of, say, a digitised sparrow perching on your fingertip? Your gestures are recognised using motion and muscle sensors, similar to other haptic devices.

But here's what's really remarkable about this version: The device stimulates your muscles right back, using multi-channel electronic muscle stimulators (EMS).It can actually control the muscles in your fingers and hands. It's also less unwieldy and bulky than its competitors, which tend to take the form of bulky gloves.

The Kickstarter page says that this tech will enable in-VR effects like “bodily encounters and occasions of being inflicted with damage within games [to] be felt in person“. With plugins, it can be integrated into existing games and with its open hardware Arduino capability, it's easily hackable on any platform

Dive into the game world

Place UnlimitedHand on the arm and synchronise your hand with the game world. The arm band senses the finger motion and gives a haptic feedback

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